"france 24." a different take on the news.

>> he's already been in power for the past 33 years. and now robert mo gabby will remain on the presidential seat for five more years. he's won a seventh term in office amidst accusations of fraud. interpol issues a global security alert fearing a potential terrorist attack, this after hundreds of al qaeda fighters escaped from prison across nine different countries. and for the first time in a month egypt's interrim government and supporters of mohammed marcy have shown a will to compromise. camps have been urged to put an end to the violence. hello, welcome to "france 24." let's go straight to our top story.

robert mugabe is one of the oldest leaders and he's in for the long run. at 89, zimbabwe's president has been he elected for five more years. he crushed his rival with 61% of the vote, compared to only 34% for morgan tsvangirai. the international community is starting to react on these results. the e.u., great britain and the u.s. have all voiced their concern. john kerry says they are not credible, plus the electoral process was flawed, she says. >> the opposition leader believes it's the beginning of a period of national mourning. the electoral commission confirmed the victory that president robert mugabe had already claimed the day before. the 89-year-old's power uninterrupted and overwhelmingly won another five-year term. the party now holds a 2/3 majority in particlements.

this will allow the push-ahead of constitutional changes. the movement for democratic change says his party has evidence of massive vote-rigging, urging a peaceful response to the alleged fraud. he promised to fight the results. >> they are determined to pursue peaceful, legal and diplomatic remedies to resolve this current crisis. once all remedies have been exhausted, the people of zimbabwe should be allowed great opportunity to freely, fairly elect a government of their choice. >> after the last disputed election the m.d.c. entered a power-sharing agreement. tsvangirai has ruled out joining mugabe's government again. the development community has said the vote was credible, but some say it was seriously compromised. the e.u. and u.s. have also

voiced their concerns over election irregularities. >> "france 24"'s correspondent tells us more about mugabe's hold on the country now that his camp has a majority in parliament. >> with the majority he doesn't need other parties, he doesn't need morgan tsvangirai anymore. as i said earlier, he has super powers now. he can even go ahead and change the country's constitution without consulting other parties. so morgan tsvangirai, i'm afraid, has very few options available to him. i'm not sure whether presenting evidence of these claims of vote-rigging on the african union is going to make any difference. >> gearing up for an election runoff on august 11 and political alliances are starting to form. one of the kingmakers, who was the candidate for the largest party, has decided to back the runner-up. let's take a listen.

>> considering malian's deep aspirations for stability, peace and security and taking into account malyans' ardent desire to give malia back its dignity, i'm solemnly calling on all members of the party and all my fellow malians who voted for me to return to the polls in support of the candidate in the second round of the presidential elections. >> well, that's good news for kaita, who's already secured 39% of the votes in the first round, well ahead of his closest rival. our correspondents report. >> from 27 presidential hopefuls to just two. with more candidates reaching the necessary 50% milestone after the first round of voting, malians will return to

time to choose their new leader. ex-prime minister kaita currently holds a 20-point lead over his challenger. former finance minister says the result is clouded by electoral fraud. >> the mass mobilization of the malian people on july 28 must not hide the trees of impen traability of fraud which characterized the first round of the presidential election. >> kaita's supporters, too, cried foul but believe their man will come out on top. >> even if we didn't get the majority, i believe that the result we achieved is really encouraging. it shows that the people are behind us, and until now we are on the right track. we believe that victory will come back to us. >> but the acting president and

human secretary banky moon have acknowledged the votes may be imperfect. despite this the international community largely praised mali for running a peaceful election. this follows a turbulent 18 months which saw islamists seize the inner half of the country after a military coup and following a french military intervention. >> western nations are on high alert. interpol says an al qaeda attack could be looming. a threat that could be linked to a series of prison breaks that freed hundreds of al qaeda members over the past few weeks. for the first time since 9/11 the united states have issued a global travel warning and has temporarily closed down 21 embassies and consulates across the muslim world. france is also planning to close its embassies in yemen on sunday, as rochelle ferguson explains. >> an attack possibly in the middle east or north africa, the grave warning from the u.s. state department on saturday as it issued a global terror

threat urging its citizens traveling abroad to stay particularly vigilant. >> i'm an american citizen originally from egypt. i really care about this warning. it is very important. it will make me take precautions very much. i need to be in a safe area. >> the travel alert came just after the u.s. confirmed it was closing almost two dozen of its embassies worldwide. these include consulates in dubai, right across to afghanistan. according to "the new york times" the department intercepted emails from key al qaeda operatives and they are taking no chances. >> the department has been apprised of information out of abundance of caution and care, which indicates we should institute these precautionary steps. >> in response to the u.s. threat alert other countries have followed suit. great britain and france have closed their embassies in yemen

in what they are calling precautionary. >> i decided to close the french embassy in yemen because we have information which makes us think that these threats are extremely serious. >> following last year's deadly september 11 attack on a u.s. diplomatic post in a libyan city of ben ghazi, western countries have been on alert. >> we spoke to an expert in washington and he told us more about yemen increasingly becoming a terrorism hot spot. >> according to the little evidence released by the administration that, you know, these threats have to do with al qaeda and yemen and possibly maybe the corroboration of, you know, this intercepted information by the visit here in washington this past week by the president of yemen. so maybe he had some additional

information to give credence to these rumored plans. no politician wants to be caught with an attack similar to what we have experienced in the past. this is a very serious step both, whether it's the closure of the embassies or the travel alert, as comprehensive as they both are. this is only the second time, actually, since october, 2011, that the u.s. does that. and it implies that there is a lot more than the usual chatter that has been intercepted. apparently, as has been described as kind of a very serious or significant threat stream, may be more specific than usual. so the u.s. government and other governments followed suit by taking necessary measures to protect their facilities, and that is of course giving a victory to the terrorists, those that make these threats in a way that this might be viewed by some analysts as an

overreaction and somehow a political victory to terrorist groups. >> now, could they sit around the negotiating table? in egypt u.s. and european envoys have been meeting with members of the interim government as well as with supporters of the ousted president mohammed morsi. the u.s. is trying to get both sides to cooperate after a month of unrest and political turmoil. joseph tandy has more. >> evening prayer time in cairo. throughout the day many supporters repeated the refrain that's become their rallying cry. >> there will be no storming of our city until our demands are met. we wants the return of morsi. >> yet some in the pro-morsi camp appeared to be softening their stance. they met with american and european mediators on saturday. after the meeting a espn for

the pro--morsi group for the first time recognized the strengths of protests against the leader saying i respect and hold in regard the demands of the masses that went out. the spokesman demanded a return to egypt's new suspended constitution but admitted a call for morsi's return to power, saying we have the readiness and flexibility to accept political solutions to get out of this crisis as long as they are based on constitutional legitimacy. meanwhile the egyptian government said it, too, had contacted members of the muslim brotherhood in an effort to reach a peaceful compromise. >> i wouldn't use the word negotiations in the formal structural sense. but there have been contacts between different figures, be they in government directly or indirectly, and those among brotherhood leaders. >> under the so-called road map rolled out by egypt's transitional government the country is set to hold fresh

elections in around six months' time. since morsi's supporters have grown in some quarters for the army chief, yet on saturday he denied interest in running for president, telling "the washington post" he doesn't aspire for authority. >> iran has a new president, hassan rohani, who has officially replaced mahmoud ahmadinejad. nearly two months after the ballot the new iranian president promised he would try his best to elevate iran's position and lift international sanctions. he is set to take the oath in parliament on sunday. >> the official seal of approval from supreme leader ali khamenei was endorsed by iran's highest authority saturday, taking office the country's new president and succeeding mahmoud ahmadinejad. speaking of the ceremony, rohani's watch word was moderation. >> the country is in need of

national resolve. the distance of extremism and policymaking in governments and focuses on the rule of law and upholding the law. the dialogue and plan that was set out during the elections and received a majority vote was this -- moderation and tolerance. >> among the challenges rohani now faces is the issue of political prisoners. at least 800 are currently behind bars for challenging the country's leadership, including prominent opposition figure masavi. human rights activists and feminists are also under lock and key. rohani had pledged to release many of these detainees, but his decision will require the backing of the supreme leader. >> personalities and ideology does not matter that much.

what matters is the hard core of the system, which is not elected. >> the ayatollah also has a tight hold over the country's nuclear policy, but iran's new president said it is possible to maintain its current program while improving relations with world leaders. iran's economy could be another headache for rohani. strict sanctions from the west have taken their toll. oil exports are in decline and youth unemployment is at almost 40%. in a bid to curry support among this younger generation rohani said he'll relinquish some government control over the internet, although there are doubts it will appease the nation's disenfranchised youth for very long. >> finally, the world's greatest football player lionel messi in israel. their reign create what they call training camps for peace, essentially teaching palestinian children, an incredible event welcomed by hundreds of fans across the country. during the day the team visited

bethlehem, went to the wailing wall and met the palestinian leader, mahmoud abbas, and on sunday they're heading to tel aviv to meet with his israeli counterpart, shimon peres. well, that wraps up this edition. do stay tuned to "france 24." >> how new technologies va made it possible to measure the quality of the air we breathe. the week's news and the videos of the week. after the explosions at the nuclear plant, members put

together homemade radiation monitors to collect and distribute more recent and useful information than the government was releasing. this has become more commonly used. the association has acquired some of these sensors, though they are still looking for funding for their project. they are planning to monitor air quality for the people of france. let's take a closer look. >> we decided on the air pollution monitoring because there were already organizations monitoring air quality and informing citizens. information that's filtered down from above to us, the people. the objective is to have what we develop with electronic engineers and organizes. we position these sensors as close to a major road as possible and the data captured is then sent via the internet and we can transpose it on to a chart. the benefits are twofold -- we can supplement official data and also visualize the invisible. by this i mean air is something we feel. if it smells bad, then we can

smell it. we can see there are clouds, pollution clouds. what we can't identify is if it's an air pollution episode. there are varying degrees, levels, and the senses will be able to tell us how many micrograms of fine particles are in the air, how many particles of nitrogen dioxide. pollutants, which are found in the 50 cubic meters of air we inhale daly. so the measurements recorded by these sensors affect everyone. in fact, even the equipment, which you can easily buy online, works in a participatory fashion. we met up with one of the developers of this technology. the aim is to have an open-source system that anyone can use and modify. so we focused on building systems that are easy to manage and accessible. we use a system like this one, so we have a network that's an internet subnetwork because all of the charts are online and

have an i.p. address and a feed. they are all public. >> there are a lot of websites available to help with the measuring device. it's quite simple, so to speak of the basically this sensor here is the basis of our network. it's a pollution sensor, pollutants like nitrogen dioxide. so we have a transmission card like this one which is connected to the sensor with a cable and this gives us a g.p.s. module, like a telephone has to connect to the internet. so the device can now access a telephone network and send data online and we can make charts. if we add a g.p.s. to the device we can map the data and then map the data in real time. basically the project wants to give the public the high-tech tools it needs to support participatory planning. there are now a number of initiatives, like air quality and smart citizen following a

similar approach. those concerned about the air they breathe, yet don't have the patience or skill for these d.i.y. sensors, there are numerous smartphone applications also available. they measure air quality and report in real time with guidelines on what to do in the event of a pollution episode. >> in the u.k. illegally go home or face arrest. two billboards like this were mounted on advance and driven around a number of london bower rougs last week as part of a publicity campaign to urge illegal immigrants to make themselves known to the authorities so they can be sent back to their home country. but not everyone in the ruling coalition supports the campaign and it's also stirred up mixed and lively reaction on social networks. the vehicles used have been dubbed "the racist advance" by dubbed "the eb users.vance" by

others have shown their opposition to the scheme by doctoring the original billboard design with more than a hint of irony and urging tax dodgers to pay their taxes or even calling for the unemployed to find work or be sent to prison. other more mischievous brits contacted their home office using the number provided on the billboard campaign to ask if the government will be willing to pay their taxi fare if they do ask to go home. and despite the criticism the government has said it was a successful operation, and according to reports from local media the authorities are considering rolling out the campaign across the country. >> gay bars and night clucks in the u.s., the u. -- cubs in the u.k. and the u.s. are no longer serving vodka from russia. activists are particularly angry about two new laws

banning gay propaganda to children and same-sex couples. american writer and an activist, dan savage, launched a campaign on his blog last week encouraging gay bars to stop selling one of the leading russian vodka brands to denounce the anti-gay climate in russia. it was bearing the rainbow colors. the c.e.o. condemns putin's anti-gay policies and says the company stands with and supports russia's lgbt community. as it continues to gain ground each day, some are wondering what impact the boycott will actually have. in an interview for the site at gay star news, he says it will most probably have no influence over political decisions in russia and thinks it would be better to target the homophobic lawmakers, calling on western countries to deny them entrance visas.

the real men don't beat women campaign was launched in brazil a few months ago by the world bank, where the participation of a number of brazilian women's rights groups to challenge them to show their solidarity and combat the scourge of domestic violence. the ministry of home affairs has presented statistics showing every four minutes a woman is killed by domestic violence in brazil. the u.n.'s campaign is being run essentially by social networks. web users and men in particular are encouraged to speak out against domestic violence by posting photos of themselves holding a sign bearing the campaign slogan, "i'm a real man." many have joined the movement as illustrated by these scores of photos shared by men of all ages on the campaign's facebook page and also on instagram. and brazilian citizens are using twitter to promote the campaign and urge their fellow

citizens to unit against domestic violence in brazil. some are saying the online campaigning is a start, but more needs to be done to bring about real change. the best way to do this, they say, is to report any cases or suspicions of domestic violence to the authorities using the dedicated help line and dialing 180. >> do a backflip from one skateboard and land on another. after a few failed attempts, the skateboard champ finally pulled off this staggering stunt, which you can see for yourself in this youtube video. >> whoo! ♪

>> this video features the world football freestyle champion, andrew henderson, pulling off one amazing trick and move after another. in a selection of well known spots across london. the impressive stuff indeed, this clip will no doubt be a hit with football fans everywhere. ♪ captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

>> it's a fairly intense way to spend your holidays. giving up your individuality and retiring to an austere world where 3:30 a.m. wake-up calls, physical discomfort and hunger are routine. this british art historian is about to embark on 45 disof total silence.

it's all part of the buddhist path to spiritual well k and monasteries are happy to guide you on your way. >> when you first start it is a bit like running into a brick wall, you know. you're having extreme problems settling down and for your mind to settle, and the new environment, a different way of dressing, different way of eating. it's like some sort of military boot camp. you've even got the same hairstyle. >> here whole days are spent in quiet contemplation. meditation is the cornerstone of menastic practice, free from the cares of everyday life and open to everyday understanding. this has seen extraordinary change since tight military rul tourists are returning in droves to see the sights and, in some cases, taking a more spiritual experience.

>> when the governments opened up more foreign mediators came. many of them are coming now, especially this year, not only from the west, people from the east also come here. >> entering a monastery, at least for a short time, is a normal part of life for many in myanmar, regarded as a deeply devout country. meditation, detachment and oving kindness are just some aspects of the quest for nirvana and release from the suffering of perpetual reincarnation, which is at the heart of what buddhists believe. >> i like the sunshine. the food is delicious. and above all, i'm happy meditating here because i believe that the country has more darma than any other place on the planet. >> while the mon nastic routine, many find relieve away from the rat race which is, in a way, what holidays are for.

hello, and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm keikichi hanada in tokyo with the latest at this hour. three suicide bombers staged an attack on an indian consulate building in afghanistan. the men triggered a massive explosion that killed at least nine people including children. police say they stopped the man in a car at the checkpoint near the building in the city of jalalabad. one of the men then reportedly detonated the bomb inside of the